Jenna Payne is a writer, director, producer, and unapologetic genre enthusiast whose work explores what happens when ordinary people are pushed to extraordinary limits. Drawn to horror, dark comedy, crime, and action, she uses genre as a vehicle to interrogate power, inequality, and the absurdity of modern life. Her stories are fueled by righteous anger, a sharp sense of humor, and the belief that monsters – and the systems that create them - are human.

Over the last several years, Jenna's own life became the subject she never expected to write. After navigating years of medical dismissal while seeking diagnoses for Ankylosing Spondylitis, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, and other chronic illnesses, she transformed those experiences into Hysteria, a feature-length dark comedy and medical revenge story. Equal parts satire and catharsis, the project examines the failures of the American healthcare system through the lens of genre storytelling. Hysteria has been recognized in multiple screenwriting competitions, while its companion short film - directed largely remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic - screened internationally, including at Final Girls Berlin, Access: Horror, and Another Hole in the Head. In 2025, the feature pitch won Wench Film Festival's Pitch It Till You Make It competition.

Her latest short film, Eat the Rich, asks a deceptively simple question: Who's your favorite billionaire to throw on the grill? Shot during the total solar eclipse in April 2024, the satirical horror short premiered at Morbido Film Fest in Mexico City before screening internationally.

Her filmmaking career began in New York City, where she wrote and directed her first award-winning short film, Feline Frenzy. Shortly afterward, Hurricane Sandy plunged lower Manhattan into darkness. Rather than wait for normalcy to return, Jenna assembled a cast and crew to make Darktown, the only narrative film shot in blacked-out Manhattan during the city's historic blackout. That experience cemented a creative philosophy she still follows today: when the world falls apart, make something.

In 2013, Jenna relocated to Los Angeles, where she continued developing bold, genre-driven stories. Her television projects include Shiner, an Appalachian crime saga recognized by Roadmap Writers' JumpStart Competition, Table Read My Screenplay Sundance, and Women In Film's Mini Upfronts, among others. She also developed The Big Three Are after Me, a horror story born from the collapse of the American auto industry in Flint, Michigan, now evolving as an anthology television series. Her love of camp, comedy, and monsters also led to Zompire Vixens from Pluto! The first episode was adapted into a comic book and pitched as branded content.

Beyond her own work, Jenna is passionate about helping other filmmakers build sustainable creative careers. She spent several years with the nonprofit Cinefemme, where she produced the acclaimed Dinner with Dames mentorship series, connecting emerging women and non-binary filmmakers with industry leaders including Paul Feig, Zoe Bell, Jessica Sharzer, and Kimberly Browning. She has also worked across every stage of production on projects ranging from independent features to studio films, television, music videos, and Super Bowl commercials. These experiences continue to shape both her creative process and her practical understanding of filmmaking.

Today, Jenna is building Disaster Capital, an independent production company dedicated to developing elevated horror and genre films from emerging voices. Its inaugural slate includes projects by Black, disabled, Jewish, LGBTQIA+, and women filmmakers tackling subjects such as healthcare, climate change, racism, parenthood, and gentrification through bold, entertaining genre storytelling.

Whether writing biting satire, producing ambitious independent films, or championing new filmmakers, Jenna is driven by the same belief: great genre stories don't just entertain. It exposes uncomfortable truths, challenges the status quo, and reminds us that surviving the monster is only the beginning.

Jenna Payne